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11/27/2015

Eight Tips to Make Credit Cards Work for You, Not Against You

Stay in control of your credit cards — don’t let them control you.
A credit card can be a valuable tool if you know how to use it properly. Likewise, using credit cards irresponsibly can lead to a world of hurt.
If you need an example of how badly things can go, look no further than your neighbors, friends, and relatives. According to the most recent statistics, the average American household carries around $7,200 in credit card debt. Even worse, that figure tends to increase with each passing year, even as household incomes struggle to keep up with inflation.
Further, a 2001 study by Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester titled “Always Leave Home Without It” surmised that individuals using credit are often willing to spend twice as much for the same exact item.
Why? Because, according to the study, using a credit card instead of cash — particularly on items with a hard-to-specify value, such as tickets — somehow muddles our fiscal judgment and lulls us into spending more than we’d planned.
The good news, I suppose, is that Americans are really awesome at using credit cards. According to the Federal Reserve, 53% of all purchases are made with credit. Unfortunately, we’re just not nearly as awesome at paying them off.
How to Use Credit Cards to Your Advantage
But if you want to use credit in the right way, you don’t have to forsake credit cards altogether — although that’s not a bad strategy if you know you’re prone to abusing them.
Instead, adopt a few simple habits that will let you enjoy the benefits of credit cards — cash flow flexibility and rewards perks, to name two — without the dangerous downsides.
Follow these tips to make credit your best friend (instead of your mortal enemy):
Pay your bill in full every month.
If you don’t want to end up like the “average American,” you need to stay out of credit card debt altogether. That means charging only what you can afford and paying your bill in full every month — or even a few times a month if it helps you stay ahead of it.
Doing so may seem challenging, but this is the number one rule of using credit cards instead of letting them use you; it is truly the only way to avoid getting into credit card debt, and the only way to avoid paying interest on your purchases. (Trust me, you don’t want to do that: A 20%-off sale means next to nothing after you get whacked with an 18% finance charge.)
Never pay your bill late.
In addition to paying your bill in full, you should also make sure you pay your bill on time. Most issuers charge an ugly fee — often up to $39 — for a late payment. And since 35% of your credit score is based on your payment history, a missed payment can really ding your score.
Meanwhile, paying all of your bills on time is a great way to keep your interest rates low and improve your credit score – and your overall credit health – over time.
If you’re afraid you’ll forget and wind up missing your due date, set a reminder on your phone a few days beforehand or mark the date on your calendar. Another option: Adjust your online account settings so your bill is paid automatically on a certain day of the month through a direct bank draft.
Log into your account.
One reason credit is easier than cash to use and keep track of is because it creates a paper trail. When you use credit for all of your purchases, you don’t have to keep receipts for things like grocery and gas purchases. Instead, you can just log in to your online account to see where you spent money, how much you spent, and how much you have left.
Checking in often — at least once a week — can help you stay on top of your spending so it never spirals beyond your control. If you notice yourself pushing the limits of what you can afford to pay back this month, stop using your card immediately until you get the balance paid down.
Examining your account activity can also help you spot any money leaks in your spending. Are you spending way more at Starbucks than you realized? Most credit cards offer powerful tools on their websites to track your spending — use them to your advantage.
Use your credit card as a compliment to your budget.
If you’re disciplined enough, you can use a credit card as a compliment to your budget. This strategy usually involves creating a written budget, then using your credit card for purchases until you work through your predetermined spending limits. This is a great way to earn rewards for purchases you’d be making anyway, and to gain certain protections that only credit offers.
To stay on track, make sure to log in to your account once per week or every few days. Seeing your spending on your computer screen - in black and white - is sometimes the only way to let how much you’ve really spent sink in.
Know your limits.
If you’re worried that you might overspend, ask your credit card company to lower your credit limit to something you know you can manage on a monthly basis. They should be more than happy to oblige since they ultimately want you to pay the money back, and they can often make the credit limit change effective immediately. Not everyone wants a $10,000, $5,000, or even $3,000 limit on their cards, and that’s okay.
Another strategy you can try: Use your card until you’ve spent a self-imposed limit, say $500, and then put your card away in a drawer until the beginning of the next month – or until you pay your bill in full. This can help you stay on budget and on top of your bill while allowing you to maintain a larger credit limit that might be useful in an emergency.
Only use your card for the big stuff.
A lot of people who get into credit card debt complain that it sneaks up on them, and for good reason. Sometimes it’s those little $10 and $20 purchases that, over time, can take on a life of their own when left unchecked. If you want to avoid a “death by a thousand cuts,” consider using your card just for big purchases instead.
The best way to do this is to save up for your purchase in cash first. Then, after you make the big purchase with your rewards credit card (and reap the rewards points), you’ll have the funds to pay it off right away.
Another option: Use your card for big, important purchases, then pay it off over the course of a few months under a strict timeline — knowing that you’ll pay a bit in interest for the luxury of spreading out the payments. (That is, unless you can take advantage of an introductory 0% APR offer.)
When you go this route, start with a plan and stick to it carefully. For example, if you plan to buy a new washer and dryer for $1,200 and then pay it off over three months, make sure you’re prepared to pay $400 a month for three straight months (plus some interest). Ask yourself, “Can I definitely keep up that pace?”
It may also be helpful not to use your card on other purchases until you’ve paid off the washer and dryer in full. You don’t want that balance do***ng you months after you thought it would be history.
Take advantage of all the rewards you can.
Those who have the most to gain from credit cards are the people who master the art of credit card rewards. The best rewards credit cards offer an array of benefits – including cash-back, hotel loyalty points, and frequent flyer miles — that can be earned just for using your card for regular expenses such as groceries or the cable bill.
Of course, credit card rewards become a lot less lucrative when you’re paying interest on your purchases because you’re carrying a balance. To avoid that misstep, only pursue credit card rewards if you know for a fact that you can pay your balance in full. If you don’t know that for sure, those rewards probably won’t be worth it.
Choose cards with extra perks.
Even if you’re not interested in credit card rewards per se, you can still leverage the benefits of a credit card. For example, some of the best credit cards out there offer perks such as free travel insurance, primary and secondary rental-car coverage, price protection, and extended warranties. If you pay your card in full every month, you can enjoy all of these perks for free.
Don’t Be Average: Use Credit to Your Advantage
Yep, the average American really sucks at using credit cards. The thing is, that doesn’t mean you have to follow in his footsteps. Instead of falling victim to the credit card trap, buck the trend and use credit responsibly. The perks and rewards are amazing, but only if you have the willpower and self-discipline to truly take advantage.
The post Eight Tips to Make Credit Cards Work for You, Not Against You appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

11/26/2015

Sometimes

Sometimes, you need to take a young child shopping, and it might throw off your list and your meal plan. But overspending by $20 doesn’t mean you’re a financial failure – it means you’re human. Photo: Quinn Dombrowski
Most of the time, I have my financial house in pretty good shape.
I follow my well-planned grocery list at the grocery store.
I don’t spend much money on stuff I don’t need.
I keep us on track with our family’s budget.
I don’t spoil my children with expensive stuff or experiences.
I save plenty for an early retirement and maybe for a new house in the country.
I enjoy the free things in the community and in my home.
I take care of maintenance tasks and plan ahead for them.
I make wonderful meals at home.
I stay content with what I have and the abundance that my life gives me.
Sometimes, though… sometimes, I don’t.
I’ll find my day completely disrupted by a series of unfortunate events and find myself at the grocery store trying to plan three or four days’ worth of meals on the fly with a five-year-old following me around asking me to add Chocolate Frosted Mini Wheats and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish to the cart – and in a frazzled state, I do.
I’ll click “Submit My Order” on the shopping cart at an online store at eleven o’clock at night because I just saw that they had a board game that I really wanted on discount. Three days later, the box arrives on my doorstep and I honestly don’t remember at all what I ordered, but when I open the box, I wonder what on earth I was thinking.
I’ll buy a bunch of Kindle books and then completely forget that I ordered them, causing me to go way over my personal “free spending” budget for the month. (I actually wrote about this in detail not long ago.) The next day, I’ll be standing at the library looking at the cover of that very book just sitting there waiting to be checked out for free in the “New Releases” section.
I’ll completely mess up my tracking of our family’s budget using You Need a Budget, get really frustrated with myself, not enter things for a week, then spend two or three hours fixing everything (more or less).
I’ll try to talk myself into dialing back my savings pace a little. Why? I’ll have this vague and unsubstantiated feeling in my head that we’re “saving too much” and not “living for today,” even though I’m happy with things the vast majority of the time.
I’ll go into Des Moines and do something fun and needlessly expensive with some friends, even though I know of plenty of free and fun things to do that very same day closer to home.
I’ll accidentally leave a bag of groceries in the car because I was in a hurry while unloading things. The next day, something will smell odd in my vehicle and I’ll discover a disturbingly leaky package of some sort of dairy product. The sludge has escaped all over the back seat and $20 worth of groceries are ruined, along with a meal plan completely disrupted.
I’ll find myself on a road trip when the maintenance light turns on and I remember that I forgot to change my oil several hundred miles ago because I didn’t add it to my calendar, so I’m stuck at a Jiffy L**e at seven o’clock at night in an unfamiliar town because it’s still a better option than buying an oil pan and dealing with that mess in a parking lot somewhere. All because I couldn’t remember to add a single simple task to my calendar.
I’ll hear my friend talking about the movie he just saw or the restaurant he just ate at and I’ll suddenly have this huge burning desire to see that movie or eat at that restaurant even though I had absolutely no desire to see a movie or eat out prior to this conversation. Even worse, I’ll sometimes go ahead and do it.
I’ll stand there trying to figure out what went wrong with this pan of lasagna, then I realize that I accidentally set the oven to 450 F instead of 350 F, and as I drop the crispy remnants of a once-delicious meal into the trash, I find myself stuck between the expensive options of getting some restaurant food or making yet another meal this evening.
As well intentioned as I might be, I make pretty big personal finance mistakes on a frighteningly regular basis. Even though I know incredibly well what I should be doing with my money at every turn, that doesn’t mean that I actually pull off those good moves.
The truth is, I’m not perfect.
At the same time, the truth is that if I expected perfection, I would only guarantee myself failure.
Why? I’m a human being. Human beings make mistakes and sometimes they fail even with the best of intentions.
My goal is not perfection. My goal is to wake up tomorrow and do better than I did today. My goal is for May to be better than April. My goal is for 2015 to be better than 2014.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize one key secret of success. The difference between me and a person more succesful than me is that the successful person manages to be on point just a little bit more often than I am. That’s it. It’s not a giant chasm of difference, but it’s enough so that if it’s repeated each and every day, it’s going to add up to a lot.
I might make the right financial choice 90% of the time, but the guy who makes the right choice 91% of the time is going to be just a little bit more successful today… and a little more successful tomorrow, too. The difference is tiny – maybe just a few cents or a dollar or two.
But those dollars and pennies add up, little by little. A few dollars a day, over the course of a month, adds up to $100. Over 10 years, that’s tens of thousands of dollars. That other guy who gets it right just a little more than I do ends up far, far ahead of me.
That’s the motivation. My goal isn’t perfection. My goal is to move from the 90% guy to the 91% guy.
What does that mean?
It means not beating myself up when I fail. Yes, I didn’t do things right. It does not mean I am a failure. It means I made a mistake.
It is really, really tempting to look at a mistake and let it define me as a complete failure in what I’m trying to achieve in a broader sense. If I can’t, say, follow a grocery list, then I’ll extrapolate that into saying that I can’t possibly spend less than I earn, which I can then carry into believing that my big financial goals are hopeless… and use that all as an excuse to just stop trying.
That’s foolish. I made a mistake, but I am not a failure. I’m like a runner who got my toe stuck on a sidewalk crack. That doesn’t mean that I give up running. It just means that I avoid that sidewalk in the future or perhaps get a better pair of shoes. I still get right back out there and keep running.
A mistake does not define me as a failure. It defines me as human.
It means looking for the reasons for that mistake. Why did I make that mistake? What conditions caused it to happen? For example, did I allow myself to use my credit card when I was tired? Maybe I made the poor choice of taking my five-year-old to the store with me when I wasn’t prepared to turn that grocery shopping trip into a teaching experience.
Every mistake I make happens for a reason. Mistakes aren’t a matter of personal failure. They’re due to my inability to address a situation well. The mistakes I make are correctable if I’m willing to sit back, study them, and find a better way of doing things.
Answering “why did I do this?” doesn’t expose me as a fundamentally flawed person. Instead, it exposes something in my life that I can strive to correct.
It means finding ways to not replicate that mistake the next time. Yes, I messed up today. That doesn’t mean I need to mess up in the same way tomorrow… or next week… or next month… or ever again. If I recognize that mistake and what caused it, I can figure out a way to not have that mistake ever darken my door again in the future.
I might not be perfect, but that doesn’t mean I have to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. Instead of mixing mistakes old and new, I’d rather just have new ones.
And with each little day that passes, I hope to slowly move from Mr. 90% to Mr. 91%. I don’t expect to – or even want to – be Mr. 100%.
Mr. 91% will do.
The post Sometimes appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

11/23/2015

Pay for Your Honeymoon With Credit Card Rewards

Taking advantage of lucrative credit card sign-up bonuses and putting some of your wedding expenses on those rewards cards can help you earn travel rewards for a dream honeymoon. Photo: Westin Dawn Beach via Facebook
More and more newlyweds are putting off their honeymoons. A lot of busy couples reach this decision because of scheduling conflicts, while others simply see no hurry to rush it.
But other soon-to-be-married couples are putting off their honeymoons for one reason only: money.
In many cases, that’s probably an excellent decision. While it’s certainly possible to have a frugal wedding, the average wedding now costs more than $30,000; it’s a wonder that many couples get to take any kind of honeymoon, let alone a big, extravagant one.
I know I didn’t get to take a honeymoon, unless you count a visit to my in-laws. (In case you’re wondering, I don’t.) My husband and I didn’t have much when we got married, but we did manage to pay for our wedding in cash with some help from family. And while a honeymoon sounded great, it never crossed our minds to put it on credit at the time.
But if I could go back and do things differently, I would. No, I wouldn’t have charged my honeymoon on a credit card; instead, I would have paid for most of it with credit card rewards.
Ten years ago, similar lucrative credit card rewards offers existed, but I didn’t know to take advantage of them. If I had have known then what I know now, here are some of the current offers I would have taken advantage of to book a romantic honeymoon at a discount:
Fly to the Caribbean with Southwest Airlines
When most people imagine their honeymoon, they probably picture themselves laying on a tropical beach, drink in hand. One awesome way to get to the Caribbean on the cheap is to sign up for the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card and earn the sign-up bonus.
Although Southwest is mostly known for its awesome fares on domestic travel, the airline recently started flying to several destinations in the Caribbean and Central America. Some of the new destinations perfect for a honeymoon include Aruba, Montego Bay, Nassau, San Juan, Punta Cana, and Cancun.
Score All-Inclusive Stays for Free
I recently took my husband and two kids to Montego Bay for spring break. Using around 150,000 IHG Rewards points and $420 in cash back rewards from a different cash back card, we were able to book six nights at the Holiday Inn Sunspree All-Inclusive Resort.
It was pretty awesome for a few reasons. First, staying at an all-inclusive resort meant that we could enjoy as much food and drink as we wanted for free. And second, that part made budgeting and planning for the trip so much easier. Aside from bringing some money for tips and airport transportation, I didn’t have to plan for much else.
If you’re interested in staying at an all-inclusive resort for free, IHG has several properties that fit the bill. Here are some details on how you can also sign up for this card:
IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card
Highlights:
More Caribbean Fun with Starwood Preferred Guest
My husband and I traveled to the island of St. Maarten earlier this year, and I have to say, it quickly became my favorite place on Earth. The soft, white sand, the friendly locals, and the mountain landscape won me over before I could suck down my first mojito. Right then and there, I knew it was the kind of place that would be perfect for a honeymoon.
Because we loved it so much, we’re already saving up rewards to get back there for our 10-year anniversary. By having both of us sign up for the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express, we earned enough points for six nights at the Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa on the Dutch side of the island.
And if you’re not interested in St. Maarten, SPG has properties in other parts of the Caribbean as well, including resorts in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, and St. John.
Here are some details on the co-branded Starwood Preferred Guest credit card:
Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
Highlights:
Flexible Travel with Chase Ultimate Rewards
When you don’t know when or where you want to plan your honeymoon, it can make sense to choose rewards that have some flexibility. When it comes to rewards that fall under that category, no other type is more valuable than Chase Ultimate Rewards.
With a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you earn rewards that can used in a number of ways. You can use your points to book airfare and hotel stays directly through the Ultimate Rewards website at a 25% discount, for example, or you can redeem them for straight-up cash back at 1 cent per point.
Another option: You can also transfer your points to a number of frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs including Hyatt, IHG, British Airways, and Southwest Airlines. The options are limitless.
Here are some of the card’s pertinent details:
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Highlights:
If you’re like me and never went on a honeymoon, it’s not too late! You can still travel together and celebrate other milestones, like birthdays and anniversaries, all while staying on budget and staying out of debt. But with the cards listed here, your list of affordable destinations and options just got a whole lot longer.
The post Pay for Your Honeymoon With Credit Card Rewards appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

11/22/2015

The High Price of Free Games

‘Freemium’ games — addicting apps that start out free but entice you to make small, ongoing purchases — aren’t just targeted at kids. Photo: Lars Plougmann
Last Christmas, I got my six-year old daughter a Kindle Fire for Christmas. It was to be her “big gift” of the year, and I thought it would be great for long car rides and fun, educational games.
I expected her to love it, which she did, but there was one thing I didn’t expect – the constant onslaught of financial requests I would soon encounter. After loading my daughter’s Kindle with free games, the begging started right away.
“Mom,” my daughter would say, “I need $2 to open the next level of ‘Barbie Barber Shop.’”
“I have to unlock the curling iron to win,” she would explain in the world’s saddest voice.
And on “Frozen Free Fall,” a line matching game, she quickly found that the five lives you start out with was never enough.
“Mom, can I get some more lives?” she would ask. “A set of 12 lives is only 99 cents!”
How ‘Freemium’ Games Hook You
Fortunately, my daughter doesn’t really have any money of her own. Because if she did, I’m pretty sure she would be the proud owner of dozens of “levels” and “upgrades” on the handful of games she plays when she gets home from school. I was also able to set a password on her Kindle so that she couldn’t purchase the next level on “Kitty Pet Shop” by accident – or on purpose.
But it just goes to show how sneaky freemium games are when it comes to parting you and your hard-earned cash. And it’s not just games aimed at kids either – many freemium games are created solely for adults.
Remember the popular Facebook game “Candy Crush Saga”? According to several sources, Candy Crush was pulling in as much as $850,000 every 24 hours in its heyday.
As PsychGuides.com notes, freemium game developers use a series of strategies to hook us into games like Candy Crush that start out free, but ultimately cost money.
“The economy of it is simple enough – lowering an app’s price to zero can lead many more people to install it since it costs nothing to start playing,” they wrote in The Psychology of Freemium, an analysis of several studies on the subject.
The High Cost of Free, Addicting Games
Once you start playing, however, prepare yourself for constant temptation to spend nominal amounts of money on game features and upgrades that will improve your experience – or simply allow you to play longer.
And that’s where they nickel and dime you to death. For example, a 2014 study on mobile freemium games showed that 67% of in-app purchases were between $1 and $5, low enough that many people don’t think twice about it.
However, those small purchases only made up 27% of freemium game revenue in 2014, according to PsychGuides. Meanwhile, over 50% of freemium game revenue came from those who were heavily invested in their game of choice, whether it was Farmville, Clash of Clans, or even myVEGAS Rewards.
Termed “whales” — the same name casinos use for high rollers and heavy gamblers — these big spenders are extremely sought after by freemium game developers. Because as they have found, you don’t need to hook everyone into spending real money on extra lives and special bonus features; you just need to hook a handful of people who will spend some serious cash to stay busy and entertained.
To coerce potential big spenders into getting hooked onto a freemium game, game developers have come up with a unique bag of tricks. According to PsychGuides, most game developers’ strategies were created after studying data on freemium game users and learning to identify the exact moment when they begin to get bored.
By providing new levels or incentives at those key moments, freemium game developers can get their “whales” on the hamster wheel. As the game gets harder, they can then introduce additional aides or incentives that make it more exciting and easier to conquer — while still keeping some rewards juuust out of reach.
The problem? Most freemium games have no real “end.” So you can never win, no matter how much you spend.
The Key to Avoiding Freemium Games
Funny as this all may sound, video game addiction is real. If you feel as if you might be addicted to freemium games or any other video games, there are plenty of signs to watch out for.
As PsychGuides notes, some of the most common symptoms include restlessness and irritability when playing, lying to family and friends about gameplay, isolation from others, and preoccupation with thoughts of your game of choice when you are unable to play.
If any of these symptoms sound all too familiar, contact a local therapist or reach out to your local chapter of Online Gamers Anonymous, a self-help 12-step program founded in 2002.
On the other hand, if you’re spending on freemium games willfully, it might be time to take a look at your habits and the root cause of your problem. Chances are, you’re spending on freemium games because you’re bored or looking to fill a void. And, as with anything else, you may not realize just how quickly those $1, $5, and $10 purchases add up.
Have you ever spent money on a freemium game? How much?
The post The High Price of Free Games appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

10/26/2015

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09/24/2015

09/06/2015

When it comes to marketing through the various channels we have available today, it’s difficult to get much more personal than the mobile phone. For the mobile marketer, not only is it important to respect this medium, it’s also vital to make sure that the consumer always has control.

09/02/2015

Apple's iOS 9 to force a dramatic rethink about mobile marketing

08/30/2015

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08/19/2015

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